In answer to the great questions

While Drinking answers what drinks goes with what occasion. Perhaps he and Wonkette should become correspondents.

Just because we've rediscovered our taste for gin (still picking out a favorite though Bombay Sapphire seems to be in the lead), it doesn't mean we've turned our back on bourbon -- the bottle I'd rather have in front of me. Maker's Mark is the default choice -- yummy and widely available, though Jack Daniels Jim Beam* will do in a pinch. If we're at one of those places where the waiter asks if you want "water or tap water," we don't mind putting our nose in the air and asking for Basil Hayden or -- hard to find but worth it -- Van Winkle.

And it's true, the only problem with being a bourbon drinker is that people tend to make all kinds of assumptions about you, though being a Republican isn't the one they write about on the bathroom wall.